Mr. Meeson's Will eBook

And after that Augusta went and changed her dress,
and then came the hurried good-byes; and, to escape
observation, they drove off in a hansom cab amidst
a shower of old shoes.

And there in that hansom cab we will leave them.

CHAPTER XXIII.

MEESON’S ONCE AGAIN.

A month had passed—­a month of long, summer
days and such happiness as young people who truly
love each other can get out of a honeymoon spent under
the most favourable circumstances in the sweetest,
sunniest spots of the Channel Islands. And now
the curtain draws up for the last time in this history,
where it drew up for the first—­in the inner
office of Meeson’s huge establishment.

During the last fortnight certain communications had
passed between Mr. John Short, being duly authorized
thereto, and the legal representatives of Messrs.
Addison and Roscoe, with the result that the interests
of these gentlemen in the great publishing house had
been bought up, and that Eustace Meeson was now the
sole owner of the vast concern, which he intended
to take under his personal supervision.

Now, accompanied by John Short, whom he had appointed
to the post of his solicitor both of his business
and his private affairs, and by Augusta, he was engaged
in formally taking over the keys from the head manager,
who was known throughout the establishment, as No.
1.

“I wish to refer to the authors’ agreements
of the early part of last year,” said Eustace.

No. 1 produced them somewhat sulkily. He did
not like the appearance of this determined young owner
upon the scene, with his free and un-Meeson-like ways.

Eustace turned them over, and while he did so, his
happy wife stood by him, marvelling at the kaleidoscopic
changes in her circumstances. When last she had
stood in that office, not a year ago, it had been as
a pitiful suppliant begging for a few pounds wherewith
to try and save her sister’s life, and now—­

Suddenly Eustace stopped turning, and drawing a document
from the bundle, glanced at it. It was Augusta’s
agreement with Meeson and Co. for “Jemima’s
Vow,” the agreement binding her to them for five
years which had been the cause of all her troubles,
and, as she firmly believed, of her little sister’s
death.

“There, my dear,” said Eustace to his
wife, “there is a present for you. Take
it!”

Augusta took the document, and having looked to see
what it was, shivered as she did so. It brought
the whole thing back so painfully to her mind.

“What shall I do with it,” she asked;
“tear it up?”

“Yes,” he answered. “No, stop
a bit,” and taking it from her he wrote “cancelled”
in big letters across it, signed and dated it.

“There,” he said, “now send it to
be framed and glazed, and it shall be hung here in
the office, to show how they used to do business at
Meeson’s.”

No. 1 snorted, and looked at Eustace aghast.
What would the young man be after next?